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JACOB   H.   SCHIFF 

January  10,  1847 — September  25,  1920 


Jacob   Henry   Sghiff 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


BY 

GYRUS  ADLER 


New  York 

The  American  Jewish  Committee 

1921 


Copyright  by 

The  American  Jewish  Committee 

1921 


Heprinted,  with  minor  changes, fromthe  American  Jewish  Year  Book,  Volume  SS 


^RLr 


JACOB  HENRY  SCHIFF 
A  Biographical  Sketch 

I 

Jacob  H.  Schiff  was  known  in  all  parts  of 
the  American  continent,  in  every  country  of 
Europe,  in  Palestine,  in  Japan,  in  fact  through- 
out the  civilized  world.  Vaguely  he  was 
considered  as  the  combination  of  a  great 
financier  and  a  great  philanthropist,  but  in 
neither  capacity  had  the  extent  of  his  deeds 
been  brought  home  to  any  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  vast  numbers  to  whom  his 
name  was  familiar. 

What  manner  of  man  was  this  who,  of  no 
ruling  family  or  exalted  official  station,  so 
impressed  himself  upon  the  imagination  of 
people  in  many  climes  and  in  all  conditions 
of  Vde?  To  answer  this  question  is  well  nigh 
impossible  in  a  brief  sketch.  And  yet  the 
attempt  should  be  made,  for  mankind  is 
enriched  by  the  story  of  great  personalities, 
and  future  generations  are  stimulated  to  high 
deeds  by  the  knowledge  of  the  acts  of  those 
who  have  gone  before.  The  public,  too,  has 
a  right  to  know  of  the  lives  of  those  whom  it 
has  followed  and  admired,  so  that  it  may  be 


^  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

ennobled  by  the  consciousness  of  the  "merits 
of  the  fathers." 

Jacob  H.  Schiff  was  born  at  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main  on  January  10,  1847,  and  died  in 
New  York  on  September  25,  1920.  He  was 
descended  of  a  family  known  to  have  been 
settled  in  Frankfort  since  1370.  The  pedi- 
gree carefully  worked  out  in  the  Jewish  En- 
cyclopedia presents  the  longest  continuous  rec- 
ord of  any  Jewish  family  now  in  existence. 
The  earliest  Schiff,  named  Jacob  Kohen  Zedek, 
was  dayyan  (ecclesiastical  judge)  of  the  Frank- 
fort community  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
Another,  Meir  Kohen  Zedek  Schiff,  was  parnas 
(president)  of  the  community  in  1626.  Among 
those  who  followed  were  business  men  and  a 
number  of  Rabbis.  Of  the  latter  several  were 
men  of  distinction,  notably  Meir  ben  Jacob 
Schiff,  called  Maharam  Schiff  (1608-1644). 
He  was  a  prolific  author,  composing  commen- 
taries on  the  entire  Talmud,  some  of  which 
were  published  in  1737.  Another  member  of 
the  family  who  gained  eminence  in  the  Rab- 
binate was  David  (Tebele)  Schiff,  who  became 
chief  rabbi  of  England  in  1765  and  died  in 
London  in  1792.  He  was  a  preacher  of  great 
power  and  also  a  man  of  native  abihty,  as  is 


A  Biographical  Sketch  5 

shown  by  his  correspondence  recently  pub- 
hshed  by  Doctor  Charles  Duschinsky  in  his 
work  The  Rabbinate  of  the  Great  Synagogue. 

It  is  impossible  and  indeed  inappropriate 
even  to  endeavor  to  give  here  an  outline  of 
the  history  of  this  distinguished  family.  The 
few  facts  mentioned  are  intended  to  indicate 
that  for  over  six  hundred  years  there  can  be 
traced  an  unbroken  line  of  rabbis,  scholars, 
men  of  affairs,  and  communal  leaders,  all  of 
whose  qualities  went  to  make  up  the  back- 
ground of  the  very  remarkable  man  who  is 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  and  in  whose  single 
person  nearly  all  the  traits  of  this  long  line 
of  ancestors  were  blended — some  appearing  in 
greater  proportion  than  others,  but  all  never- 
theless present. 

His  immediate  forbears  were  Moses  Schiff 
and  Clara  Niederhofheim.  The  father,  a 
man  of  high  sense  of  duty,  exact  and  stern, 
was  rigorously  devoted  to  religious  observ- 
ances, and  demanded  a  similar  devotion  on 
the  part  of  his  children;  the  mother  was  a 
woman  of  sweet  and  conciliatory  nature.  The 
distinctive  traits  of  both  of  these  personalities 
were  found  in  the  son,  for  Mr.  Schiff  set  before 
himself  a  life  of  exacting  duty,  whilst  toward 


6  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

others  he  showed  great  kindliness  and  consid- 
eration. 

His  education,  both  secular  and  religious, 
was  thorough  for  a  layman.  In  the  course 
of  time,  by  wide  reading  and  contact  with 
men,  he  acquired  a  broad,  general  cultivation. 
He  had  a  good  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage, and  could  freely  quote  the  Bible  in 
the  sacred  tongue.  He  read  some  favorite 
commentaries,  and  kept  himself  abreast  of 
the  developments  in  biblical  studies.  His 
exactness  in  method  and  his  knowledge  of, 
and  interest  in,  Jewish  learning  undoubtedly 
went  back  to  the  excellent  if  severe  training 
of  his  boyhood  days. 

In  1865  he  left  Frankfort  ostensibly  for 
England,  but  he  had  already  determined  upon 
America  as  his  future  home.  As  the  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic  was  in  those  days  still  a 
fearsome  enterprise,  he  stopped  in  England 
long  enough  to  write  a  series  of  letters  to  his 
mother  which  were  left  in  the  hands  of  a 
friend  to  be  mailed  at  regular  intervals,  so 
that  the  mother  should  be  spared  the  anxiety 
of  his  passage  across  the  ocean  until  a  letter 
would  have  been  received  from  New  York 
announcing  his  arrival  there. 


A  Biographical  Sketch  7 

In  New  York  he  was  employed  for  a  time 
in  the  brokerage  firm  of  Frank  and  Sons,  and 
later  became  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Budge, 
Schiff  and  Company.  After  the  death  of  his 
father,  in  1873,  he  went  to  Germany,  intending 
to  live  with  his  mother,  but  the  spirit  of  America 
had  entered  his  soul,  and  his  mother,  to  whom 
he  was  deeply  attached,  herself  suggested  that 
he  should  return  to  the  United  States. 

On  January  1,  1875,  he  became  a  member 
of  the  banking  firm  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Com- 
pany, and  before  many  years  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  firm,  recognizing  his  financial  genius, 
were  glad  to  accord  him  the  headship  of  the 
house. 

II 

To  describe  the  financial  career  of  Mr. 
Schiff  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  sketch,  which, 
designed  for  the  American  Jewish  Year  Book, 
will  naturally  place  a  disproportionate  em- 
phasis upon  his  relation  to  Jewish  institutions 
and  to  Judaism. 

Still  not  even  a  brief  sketch  can  be  prepared 
without  giving  some  idea  of  the  financial 
operations  in  which  his  firm  was  engaged  under 
his  leadership.      During  this  period  it  became 


8  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

one  of  the  two  most  influential  private  inter- 
national banking  houses  on  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere. It  was  characteristic  of  Mr.  Schiff 
that  as  a  banker  his  activities  were  all  creative, 
looking  to  the  development  of  the  resources  and 
the  extension  of  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States.  Hence,  he  was  particularly  concerned 
in  the  financing  of  railway  enterprises,  recog- 
nizing that  the  prosperity  of  a  great  country 
depended,  in  large  measure,  upon  the  extent 
and  efficiency  of  its  transportation  agencies. 

He  believed  it  important  for  America  to 
bring  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  closer  together, 
thus  aiding  in  uniting  the  citizenship  of  the 
United  States  economically  and  politically. 
In  1897  he  reorganized  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  which  was  described  at  the  period 
as  being  "battered,  bankrupt  and  decrepit" — 
an  achievement  of  the  first  rank  and  con- 
structive in  the  best  sense. 

Mr.  Schiff  had  faith  in  his  intuition  of  men, 
and  being  swift  to  recognize  genius,  gave  his 
support  to  Edward  H.  Harriman.  According 
to  financial  authorities  the  Harriman-Schiff 
railway  combination  became  the  most  power- 
ful, the  most  aggressive,  and  the  most  success- 
ful that  America  had  ever  known. 


A  Biographical  Sketch  9 

In  like  manner  he  was  one  of  the  first  sup- 
porters and  associates  of  James  J.  Hill,  who, 
by  the  building  of  the  Great  Northern  Rail- 
way, virtually  became  the  founder  of  a  vast 
empire  in  the  Northwest.  Mr.  Schiff  was  for 
many  years  a  director  of  the  Great  Northern, 
retiring  only  after  a  conflict  of  interest  devel- 
oped between  it  and  the  Union  Pacific  Railway. 
The  operations  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  as 
bankers  for  railways  began  with  their  associa- 
tion with  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  some 
fifty  years  back.  One  of  their  most  important 
connections  was  with  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road system  which  came  especially  to  the 
notice  of  the  general  public  under  the  presi- 
dency of  A.  J.  Cassatt,  who  dreamed  the 
dream  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Hudson  and  of  a 
Railway  Station  in  the  City  of  New  York 
commensurate  with  the  importance  of  the 
great  city.  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  suc- 
ceeded in  floating  for  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road Company  large  loans  in  this  country  and 
abroad.  Two  checks  drawn  to  the  order  of 
the  Company  on  February  17,  1915,  for 
the  amount  of  $49,098,000,  and  on  June  1, 
1915,  for  $62,075,000,  which  hang  in  modest 
frames    in    the    ofiices    of    Kuhn,    Loeb    and 


10  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

Company,     attest    the    magnitude    of    their 
loans. 

Other  railroads  whose  financial  operations 
his  firm  aided  were  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio, 
the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson,  the  Illinois  Central  and  Southern 
Pacific.  Of  many  of  these  railroads  Mr. 
Schiff  became  a  director,  but  his  participation 
in  large  financial  enterprises  was  by  no  means 
limited  to  them.  He  also  financed  a  number 
of  important  industrial  undertakings,  such  as 
the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company,  the  United 
States  Rubber  Company,  Armour  and  Com- 
pany, the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph 
Company,  and  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company.  He  served  as  a  director  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company,  of  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  of  the  Na- 
tional City  Bank,  of  the  Central  Trust  Com- 
pany, of  the  American  Railway  Express  Com- 
pany, and  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Trust  Company. 

His  advice  was  sought  in  these  and  many 
other  enterprises  because  of  his  wide  knowl- 
edge of  affairs  in  America  and  Europe  and  of 
the  sound  conclusions  he  was  able  to  draw 
from  this  knowledge.  His  confidence  in  the 
great  trans-continental  railways  was  heightened 


A  Biographical  Sketch  11 

by  his  repeated  journeys  to  the  West  and  the 
South,  so  that  he  appreciated  from  personal 
observation  the  richness  of  our  great  national 
domain.  He  was  alive  to  the  fact  that  agri- 
culture was  the  backbone  of  commerce,  and 
once,  when  asked  what  the  stock  market 
indicated  with  regard  to  business  possibilities 
of  the  season,  said  that  he  did  not  follow  the 
stock  market  but  rather  the  crop  reports. 

As  to  the  correctness  of  his  judgment,  B.  C. 
Forbes,  a  well-known  financial  writer,  has 
declared,  in  speaking  of  him,  that  "Kuhn, 
Loeb  and  Company  have  issued  more  good 
investments  and  fewer  bad  ones  than  any  other 
banking  concern  in  America." 

The  Japanese  loan  of  1904-5,  which  Mr. 
Scliiff  financed,  attracted  world-wide  attention, 
and  had  important  consequences.  In  1904  war 
broke  out  between  Russia  and  Japan.  Gold, 
Mr.  Schiff  said  once,  was  not  essential  to  the 
conduct  of  a  war  if  the  war  was  really  a  na- 
tional effort — for  the  greater  part  of  the  cost 
of  the  war  was  borne  by  the  people  of  the 
country  who,  if  the  war  were  popular,  readily 
took  the  paper  money  which  all  governments 
put  out  to  meet  the  greatly  increased  expen- 
ditures for  military  purposes.      Gold  was  use- 


12  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

ful  for  stabilizing  the  paper  issues  and  only 
necessary  for  purchases  made  abroad  by  the 
warring  nations.  He  used  emphatically  to 
declare,  long  before  it  became  the  stock  in 
trade  of  a  certain  kind  of  propagandist,  that 
the  statement  that  bankers  could  make  or 
prevent  wars  was  a  pure  myth,  and  that  nations 
went  to  war  whenever  they  wanted  to.  When 
Japan  requested  a  loan  in  waging  what  seemed 
at  the  beginning  a  very  unequal  contest,  Mr. 
Schiff  welcomed  the  opportunity  to  undertake 
the  financing  of  so  much  of  the  loan  as  was  to 
be  placed  in  America. 

The  Japanese  Government  and  people  have 
always  been  appreciative  of  this  support,  and 
have  recognized  his  personal  influence  in 
securing  it.  In  1905  the  Mikado  conferred 
upon  him  the  Second  Order  of  the  Sacred 
Treasure  of  Japan  "in  recognition  of  the 
services  rendered  by  you  in  connection  with 
the  raising  of  the  loans  of  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment in  the  American  and  European  mar- 
kets." 

On  February  22,  1907,  he  undertook  a  jour- 
ney to  Japan  accompanied  by  his  constant 
companion,  Mrs.  Schiff,  and  a  party  of  friends. 
Of  this  journey  there  exists  a  unique  literary 


A  Biographical  Sketch  13 

record  in  the  form  of  a  quarto  volume  beauti- 
fully printed  on  Japan  paper  and  charmingly 
illustrated,  bearing  the  title  "Our  Journey  to 
Japan,  by  Jacob  H.  Schiff.  Printed  as  a 
surprise  to  the  Author,  January  10,  1907." 
The  explanation  of  this  rather  unusual  title- 
page  is  that  Mrs.  Schiff  printed  the  letters 
which  he  sent  home,  and  presented  the  vol- 
ume to  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  sixtieth 
birthday. 

The  letters  contain  a  lively  and  intimate 
description  of  the  stops  of  the  party  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  San  Francisco,  and  Honolulu,  but 
naturally  deal  principally  with  Japan.  Here 
is  a  part  of  the  record: 

'' Wednesday,  March  9,8th  is  the  great  gala 
day  for  me  personally,  the  private  audience 
with  the  Mikado  being  set  for  half  past  eleven 
o'clock,  luncheon  to  be  served  right  after  the 
audience.  I  am  told  it  is  the  first  time  that 
the  Emperor  has  invited  a  foreign  private  citi- 
zen to  a  repast  at  the  palace,  heretofore  only 
foreign  Princes  having  been  thus  honored.  .  .  . 
We  are  first  shown  into  a  large  reception  room 
where  we  are  received  by  Mr.  Nagazaki,  the 
Master  of  Ceremonies,  who  speaks  English 
fluently,    and    who   informs  the     Minister    of 


Ill-  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

Finance  that  the  Emperor  will  receive  me 
alone.  He  leaves  us  and  returns  shortly, 
stating  to  me  that  he  has  been  commanded 
by  his  Majesty  to  invest  me  with  the  insignias 
of  the  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun,  which  the 
Emperor  has  graciously  condescended  to  be- 
stow upon  me.  Accordingly  he  divests  me  of 
the  Star  of  the  Second  Order  of  the  Sacred 
Treasure,  which  I  had  received  the  previous 
year,  and  replaced  it  by  the  two  decorations, 
composing  the  second  class  of  the  Order  of 
the  Rising  Sun.  Thereupon  I  am  taken 
through  long  halls  into  a  smaller  reception 
room,  where  the  Emperor  receives  me  stand- 
ing. He  is  dressed  in  military  house  uniform 
(short  jacket  and  koppi),  also  wearing  the 
Order  of  the  Rising  Sun  and  a  number  of 
medals.  Mr.  Nagazaki  is  at  his  side  as  inter- 
preter. The  Emperor  extends  his  hand  and 
bids  me  welcome  to  Japan,  saying  that  he  has 
heard  of  the  important  assistance  I  have  given 
the  nation  at  a  critical  time,  and  that  he  is 
pleased  to  have  an  opportunity  to  thank  me 
in  person  for  it.  I  reply  that  I  feel  my  serv- 
ices have  been  over-estimated,  but  from  the 
start  my  associates  and  I,  believing  in  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause  of  Japan,  when  we 


\ 


A  Biographical  Sketch  15 

had  the  opportunity  practically  to  prove  our 
sympathy  gladly  embraced  it." 

There  follows  a  description  of  the  luncheon 
and  of  other  festivities,  notably  the  report  of 
a  speech  made  at  a  dinner  by  Mr.  Bakatani, 
the  Finance  Minister,  who,  characterizing  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Schiff  and  their  party  as  '*the  most 
distinguished  guests  that  we  have  ever  had 
from  the  United  States  of  America,"  recites 
the  details  of  the  aid  Mr.  Schiff  had  rendered 
to  Japan.  He  said  that  when  Japan  was  un- 
dertaking, in  London  in  the  spring  of  1904, 
to  negotiate  a  loan  of  ten  million  pounds  and 
was  finding  difficulty  in  securing  the  amount 
"Mr.  Schiff  in  a  single  conversation  with  Mr. 
Takahashi  offered  to  underwrite  single-handed 
a  half  of  what  we  wanted."  He  concluded 
with  the  statement:  "The  amount  of  our  loan 
subscribed  by  Mr.  Schiff  from  the  first  to  the 
fifth  issue  arrives  at  a  grand  total  of  £39,250,- 
000."  After  the  Russo-Japanese  War  was  ended 
the  firm  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  placed  a 
large  issue  of  City  of  Tokio  Bonds,  the  only 
Far  Eastern  municipal  loan  ever  taken  in  the 
United  States.  So  recently  as  in  June,  1921, 
the  Japanese  Consul  attended  the  opening  of 
a  Parkway  in  New  York  named  in  his  memory 


16  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

"Schiff  Parkway,"  while  the  Japanese  Com- 
missioner on  his  way  from  London  to  Tokio 
laid  a  wreath  upon  his  grave. 

Beside  the  Japanese  loan,  he  financed  loans 
for  other  foreign  governments  such  as  Sweden, 
Argentine,  Cuba,  Mexico,  and  China.  Prior 
to  the  World  War  his  firm  had  important 
transactions  with  the  Central  Powers.  In 
1900,  in  conjunction  with  The  National  City 
Bank,  they  issued  80,000,000  marks  of  German 
Treasury  Notes,  and  in  1912,  in  association  with 
The  National  City  Bank  and  Kidder,  Peabody 
and  Company,  $25,000,000  of  Austrian  Treas- 
ury Notes. 

Mr.  Schiff  on  numerous  occasions  refused  to 
participate  in  Russian  loans,  and  used  his  great 
influence  to  prevent  the  entry  of  Russia  into 
the  money  markets  of  America,  solely  because 
of  the  ill-treatment  of  the  Jews  .by  the  Rus- 
sian Government.  On  various  occasions,  when 
Russia  was  pressed  for  funds,  offers  were  made 
by  agents  of  the  Russian  Government  to 
relax  the  restrictions  upon  the  Jews  in  a 
particular  province  in  exchange  for  a  loan  of 
fifty  million  dollars.  Mr.  Schiff  invariably 
rejected  such  advances,  declining  to  buy 
better  treatment  for  a  section  of  his    coreli- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  17 

gionists    which    he    held    should    be    accorded 
them  as  a  matter  of  right. 

While  not  chronologically  in  place,  there 
may  yet  be  a  certain  orderliness  in  discussing 
here  Mr.  Schiff's  attitude  to  the  World  War- 
Its  outbreak  filled  his  heart  with  anguish. 
He  was  the  only  member  of  his  family  who 
had  migrated  to  America  Two  of  his  brothers 
and  his  sister  had  remained  at  the  ancestral 
home,  while  his  other  brother  was  established 
in  London.  During  the  war  his  near  relatives 
were  fighting  in  the  armies  of  three  countries 
in  Europe,  on  opposing  sides.  Mr.  Schiff  was 
an  American  of  the  intensity  which  we  some- 
times witness  in  men  who  have  migrated  here. 
The  natural  born  citizen  frequently  takes  his 
citizenship  as  a  matter  of  course.  For  the 
naturalized  citizen  it  often  becomes  almost  a 
sacrament.  Lack  of  complete  harmonj''  with 
American  ideals  and  aspirations  was  unthink- 
able to  Mr.  Schiff.  Yet  Germany  was  the 
land  of  his  birth.  He  had  many  ties  of  affec- 
tion and  friendship  there,  and  he  beheld  the 
conflict  with  horror.  He  hoped  for  a  speedy 
peace,  and  to  that  end  urged  a  peace  without 
victory,  and,  affrighted  at  the  danger  to  civili- 
zation by  the  civil  war  of  the  white    race    in 


18  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

Europe,  desired  America  to  act  as  a  neutral 
mediator. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  he 
reaHzed  the  disaster  to  the  world  in  a  German 
victory.  He  recognized  the  iniquity  of  the 
German  Government,  and  stood  firmly  with 
the  American  attitude  toward  submarine  war- 
fare. None  was  more  bitter  than  he  in  de- 
nouncing German  outrages,  but,  like  President 
Wilson,  he  felt  that  there  was  a  difference 
between  the  German  Government  and  the 
German  people. 

Mr.  Schiff  maintained  relations  with  indi- 
viduals in  Germany  until  the  entrance  of  the 
United  States  in  the  war  in  April,  1917,  but 
during  the  period  of  the  World  War,  beginning 
with  1914,  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  did  no 
financing  directly  or  indirectly  for  the  German 
Government  or  its  allies.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  placed  large  loans  for  the  French  cities 
of  Paris,  Bordeaux,  Lyons  and  Marseilles, 
which  were  issued  primarily  for  humani- 
tarian purposes.  He  was  also  willing  that 
the  firm  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  par- 
ticipate in  the  Anglo-French  loan  of  1915 
if  none  of  the  money  were  made  available 
to    Russia.       This    statement   was   issued   by 


A  Biographical  Sketch  19 

him  on  October    1,    1915,    in    regard    to    the 
loan  : 

"With  differing  sympathies  on  the  part  of 
individual  members  of  our  firm,  we  decided  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  to  refrain  from  financing 
public  loans  for  any  of  the  governments  of  the 
belligerent  nations. 

"Concerning  the  present  Anglo-French  Dollar 
Loan,  we  have  felt  that  as  American  bankers 
we  should  assist  in  what  we  believe  will  result 
in  promoting  the  interest  of  the  country's 
commerce  and  industries,  but  it  not  having 
been  found  practicable  to  give  any  actual 
assurances  that  the  Government  of  Russia— 
against  whose  inhumanity  the  members  of  our 
firm  have  ever  raised  their  voices — is  not  to 
derive  benefit  from  the  funds  that  are  to  be 
raised  through  the  Anglo-French  Loan,  I  have 
felt  constrained  to  advise  my  firm  to  refrain 
from  becoming  participants  in  the  Loan." 

When  the  Czar's  Government  fell  in  1917, 
Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company  at  once  advised  the 
allies'  bankers  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
impediment  to  their  participating  in  the  allied 
financing.  He  was  in  sympathy  with  the 
Kerensky  Government,  and  evinced  this  by  a 
subscription  of  one  million  rubles  to  the  loan 


20  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

issued  by  that  Government  which,  for  the 
time  being,  at  least,  is  valueless.  He  sent 
congratulations  to  Professor  Miliukoff,  and 
received  from  him  a  cordial  reply.  He  hoped 
for  great  things  from  this  Government  which 
he  thought  would  establish  a  constitutional 
regime  in  Russia.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
he  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment and  to  all  of  its  doctrines. 

He  participated  largely  in  the  Liberty  Loans 
and  in  all  efforts  on  their  behalf,  advised  our 
Government  in  financial  matters,  and  by  word 
and  act  invited  many  another  to  patriotic 
effort — in  fact  did  all  that  an  American  who 
had  reached  his  seventieth  year  could  do. 

During  his  long  life  in  America  he  took  his 
duties  as  a  citizen  with  great  seriousness.  In 
national  politics  he  was  a  Republican,  and 
supported  that  party.  In  1912,  however,  he 
gave  his  vote  to  Mr.  Wilson,  aided  his  cam- 
paign, and  supported  him  for  his  second  term. 
Although  personally  very  fond  of  Mr.  Roose- 
velt and  supported  him  in  state  and  national 
politics  when  he  represented  the  Republican 
party,  Mr.  Schiff  did  not  approve  of  the  Pro- 
gressive schism,  and  never  supported  that 
party  in  either  national  or  state  politics.      It 


A  Biographical  Sketch  21 

was  his  intention,  had  he    Hved,  to  vote  for 
Mr.  Harding  in  1920. 

In  the  City  of  New  York  he  was  a  strong  ad- 
herent of  movements  to  get  municipal  affairs  out 
of  the  hands  of  machine  pohticians,  and  took  a 
prominent  and  active  part  in  all  public  efforts  to 
that  end.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Committee 
of  Seventy  in  1898,  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen 
in  1902  and  of  the  Committee  of  Nine  in  1905. 


Ill 

To  many  it  was  as  the  philanthropist — the 
man  who  not  only  loved  his  fellow-men  but 
translated  his  creed  into  action— that  Mr. 
Schiff  was  best  known  His  method  of  giv- 
ing unasked  might  be  illustrated  by  many 
examples.  One  will  suffice.  In  1886  the 
Revered  Doctor  Sabato  Morals  of  Philadel- 
phia decided  to  establish  a  Jewish  Theological 
Seminary  in  New  York.  In  the  new  institu- 
tion a  library  was  required,  and  the  securing  of 
what  then  seemed  a  large  sum  (though  it 
would  now  be  insignificant)  for  the  purpose  was 
undertaken.  Mr.  Schiff  had  not  been  asked 
to  participate.  One  day  he  wrote  that  he  had 
heard  of  the  enterprise,  that  if  the  entire  sum 


22  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

had  not  been  collected,  he  would  like  to  con- 
tribute, and  that  at  all  events  he  always 
regarded  it  as  a  privilege  to  aid  in  the  advance- 
ment of  Hebrew  learning  and  wished  to  be 
given  the  opportunity  to  take  part  whenever 
such  projects  were  proposed. 

From  1886  to  1901  Mr.  Schiff  contributed 
to  the  support  of  the  Seminary,  as  he  did  many 
other  institutions.  In  the  latter  year,  how- 
ever, he  realized  that  both  for  the  conservation 
of  Judaism  as  well  as  for  the  promotion  of 
Hebrew  learning  in  America  it  was  necessary 
to  place  the  Seminary  upon  a  better  financial 
and  scholastic  basis.  Taking  the  lead  as 
usual,  with  a  few  others,  he  established  an 
endowment  fund  of  $500,000  to  which  he  was 
the  largest  individual  contributor.  He  pur- 
chased a  piece  of  ground,  and  erected  a  sub- 
stantial fire-proof  building,  entirely  at  his  own 
expense,  and  bought  two  valuable  collections 
— those  of  Steinschneider  and  Kautzsch — for 
the  library.  On  the  occasion  of  his  seventieth 
birthday  he  gave  $100,000  to  the  Seminary  on 
the  condition  that  the  income  should  be  used 
to  increase  the  salaries  of  the  faculty,  and  he 
bequeathed  $100,000  to  it  in  his  will.  Added 
to  these  large  gifts,  he  made  annual  contribu- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  23 

tions  to  its  various  funds.  He  attended  every 
meeting  of  its  Board  of  Directors  and  Execu- 
tive Committee,  except  when  he  was  out  of 
the  country,  was  present  at  practically  all 
the  student  dinners,  dedicated  their  House, 
attended  and  spoke  at  the  Commencements, 
and  in  general  showed  the  liveliest  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  the  Institution. 

With  Doctor  Solomon  Schechter  he  formed 
a  firm  friendship.  These  two  strong  natures, 
at  the  outset  of  their  relationship,  occasionally 
clashed,  but  they  were  both  big  men,  and  their 
differences  ended  in  a  laugh,  Mr.  Schiff  saying: 
"We  are  both  Cohanim  (priests),  and  the 
priests  traditionally  have  high  tempers."  With 
Professor  Friedlaender,  too,  Mr.  Schiff  had 
formed  friendly  relations.  The  former's  tragic 
death  was  a  severe  blow  to  him.  When  the 
news  came  in  July,  1920,  Mr.  Schiff  was 
already  seriously  ill.  But  all  his  thoughts 
were  of  the  great  loss  the  Seminary  and  Jew- 
ish scholarship  had  suffered  and  of  grief  and  pity 
for  the  bereft  widow  and  children.  It  required 
almost  physical  force  to  prevent  him  from  going 
to  the  meeting  held  in  memory  of  Professor 
Friedlaender  on  September  9,  though  Mr.  Schiff 's 
own  final  summons  came  but  two  weeks  later. 


2Ji-  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

In  1911  he  created,  in  connection  with  the 
Seminary  and  the  Hebrew  Union  College  at 
Cincinnati,  a  fund  for  the  support  of  two 
teachers  Institutes,  one  of  them  east  and  the 
other  west  of  the  Allegheny  mountains.  He 
so  strongly  recognized  the  need  of  proper 
teachers  for  Jewish  religious  schools  that  he 
came  to  regard  these  teachers  institutes  at 
least  as  important  as  the  rabbinical  semi- 
naries, though  he  considered  both  as  of 
great  value  and  close  cooperation  between 
them  essential. 

This  opinion  resulted  in  an  incident  very 
characteristic  both  of  Mr.  SchifF's  tempera- 
ment and  of  his  bigness  of  character.  In 
1904  Dr.  Schechter  inaugurated  the  course  for 
teachers  at  the  Seminary  Building  on  West 
123rd  Street.  The  classes  were  held  in  the 
evenings,  and  seemed  to  languish.  After  an 
experiment  of  three  or  four  years  Dr.  Schechter 
became  convinced  that  the  Seminary  was 
situated  too  far  from  the  neighborhood  in 
which  nearly  all  of  the  students  lived,  to  make 
night  courses  successful.  Accordingly  the 
question  was  broached  of  their  being  held 
elsewhere.  Mr.  Adolphus  S.  Solomons,  the 
senior  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  in- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  25 

troduced  a  resolution  providing  for  the  removal 
of  the  Teachers  Institute  to  a  locality  further 
down-town,  which  would  be  more  accessible  to 
the  students.  Mr.  SchifF  opposed  the  resolu- 
tion. He  considered  it  bad  administration, 
tending  to  weaken  both  establishments,  and 
rendering  proper  supervision  of  the  Institute 
by  the  head  of  the  Seminary  impossible.  His 
arguments  were  vigorously  combated.  Mr. 
Schiff  had,  as  has  been  said,  the  priestly  high 
temper,  and  replied  with  the  statement  that 
he  regarded  this  resolution  as  so  dangerous  that 
if  it  were  adopted,  much  as  he  loved  the  Semi- 
nary and  close  as  it  was  to  his  heart,  he  would 
feel  constrained  to  resign  from  the  Board. 
The  resolution  to  remove  the  Institute  from 
the  Seminary  building  was  adopted  by  an 
overwhelming  majority.  Mr.  Schiff  left  the 
meeting  room  deeply  chagrined. 

His  associates  felt  that  he  would  not  con- 
tinue on  the  Board  of  Directors.  He  appeared, 
however,  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Executive 
Committee  held  a  fortnight  thereafter,  and 
without  in  any  way  referring  to  the  previous 
occurrence,  arose  at  the  close  of  the  meeting, 
stated  his  conviction  of  the  great  need  for  the 
training  of  Jewish  religious  teachers,  and  an- 


^6  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

nounced  his  intention  to  create  a  special  Trust 
Fund  to  this  end  to  which  he  at  once  contrib- 
uted $100,000. 

This  story  is  characteristic  of  a  trait  of  Mr. 
Schiff,  which  was  noticeable  especially  in  his 
earlier  years;  a  quickness  of  temper,  a  momen- 
tary insistence  upon  his  own  judgment,  and  a 
willingness  to  recognize  upon  reflection  that 
he  had  been  hasty,  to  accept  the  views  of  his 
fellow-fiduciaries  and  to  make  ample  amends. 
Within  a  very  few  years,  at  about  his  sixtieth 
year,  he  mellowed  greatly.  The  flashes  of 
temper  disappeared,  and  he  in  turn  exhorted 
others  not  to  be  hasty  and  at  all  times  to  be 
patient. 

But  the  Seminary  was  not  the  only  Jewish 
institution  of  learning  to  which  Mr.  Schiff  gave 
his  interest  and  support,  and  since  he  aided 
institutions  which  represent  different  shades 
of  Jewish  religious  belief  and  practice,  it  may 
be  fitting  at  this  place  to  endeavor  to  give 
some  idea  of  his  point  of  view  with  regard  to 
Judaism.  He  had  been  reared  in  the  rigid 
school  of  Frankfort  Orthodoxy,  of  which 
Sampson  Raphael  Hirsch  was  the  leader. 
Upon  his  arrival  in  America,  he  became  a 
member    of    the    Reform    Synagogue,    and    so 


A  Biographical  Sketch  27 

remained  during  all  his  life.  He  was  attracted 
to  this  form  of  Judaism  by  a  number  of  cir- 
cumstances, but  the  one  he  mentioned  most 
frequently  was  that  it  satisfied  the  religious 
cravings  of  those  who  could  no  longer  adhere 
to  the  ancient  rabbinical  religion,  and  thus 
averted  conversion  to  Christianity.  He  fre- 
quently asserted  that  had  Reform  Judaism 
regularly  existed  in  Germany  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  family  of 
Moses  Mendelssohn  and  others  like  them 
would  not  have  been  lost  to  Judaism.  There 
were,  however,  curious  lapses  in  Mr.  Schiff's 
adherence  to  the  Reform  Synagogue,  and 
he  frequently  said  that  no  Jew  could  be 
a  good  Reform  Jew  unless  he  had  once  been 
an  Orthodox  Jew.  In  the  discussions  con- 
nected with  the  reorganization  of  the  Seminary 
he  expressed  his  notion  of  its  policy  as  an 
adherence  to  "reasonable"  orthodoxy,  a  phrase 
which  offended  some,  but  which  nevertheless 
was  not  devoid  of  theological  value.  He 
strictly  abstained  from  all  secular  occupation 
on  the  Sabbaths  and  festivals,  and  always 
visited  the  synagogue  on  Saturday  mornings. 
On  Friday  evening,  before  dinner,  he  read  the 
services  to  his  family,  and  that  evening  was 


28  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

his  family  evening.  The  Seder  services  at 
Passover  were  always  a  great  occasion,  never 
to  be  forgotten  no  matter  what  the  circum- 
stances. In  his  letters  from  Japan  he  gives 
this  interesting  note: 

^'Monday,  April  9th.  We  return  to  the 
hotel  and  because  of  the  weather  stay  indoors, 
preparing  for  the  holiday  which  begins  this 
evening.  Thoughtful  friend  Neustadt  has 
brought  'Matzoth'  from  San  Francisco — we 
should  hardly  have  been  able  to  procure  any 
in  Tokio,  as  there  appear  to  be  no  co-reli- 
gionists here — and  as  the  evening  arrives  we 
give  the  'Seder'  in  our  apartments,  probably 
the  first  time  this  has  been  done  in  the  capital 
of  the  Mikado.  Mother  has  prepared  the 
festive  table  just  as  at  home — nothing  is 
missing  for  the  ceremonies — and  with  the 
entire  party  around  the  table,  we  read  the 
'Hagada.'  Ernst  [his  nephew,  Ernst  Schiff  of 
London]  reading  the  youngest  child's  part  ('Ma 
Nishtano').  Thus  in  a  homelike  way  we  cele- 
brate the  old  festival  in  distant  lands."  As  late 
as  April,  1920,  showing  that  this  event  never 
lost  its  importance  for  him,  he  wrote:  "We  had 
eighteen  at  Seder,  which  passed  off  quite  pleas- 
antly, and  I  hope  so  did  your  own  celebration." 


A  Biographical  Sketch  29 

The  Hanukkah  lights  were  Ht  not  only  in 
his  own  house,  but  he  went  to  the  houses  of 
his  children,  and  was  present  at  the  lighting 
of  them  for  his  children  and  grandchildren, 
one  of  his  dearest  wishes  being  the  transmis- 
sion of  these  traditions  to  his  descendants. 

The  Day  of  Atonement  was  a  real  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer  to  him,  and  on  the  very 
last  one  of  his  life,  Wednesday,  September  22 
(he  died  on  the  25th),  he  fasted  the  entire  day, 
read  the  services  with  his  family  (not  feeling 
able  to  go  to  the  synagogue),  and  experienced 
the  greatest  satisfaction  at  having  been  able 
to  get  through  the  day. 

But  it  did  not  require  that  a  Sabbath  or 
New  Moon  or  Holy  Day  should  remind  him 
of  God  and  his  religion.  He  was  essentially 
a  devout  person.  Every  morning  he  read  his 
prayers  at  the  stated  time.  After  meals  he 
said  grace.  He  did  not  eat  forbidden  food. 
He  stood  outside  the  gate  of  the  cemetery  at 
Dr.  Schechter's  funeral  because  of  the  laws  of 
the  priesthood.  During  his  illness  he  wrote 
once:  "I  shall  try  now  to  get  my  sleep,  nerve 
and  energy  back;  with  care  and  with  God's 
help  I  hope  to  succeed,  but  in  any  event  I 
have   so   long   a   stretch   of   good   health   and 


30  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

happiness  to  my  credit  that  I  should  have 
naught  but  gratitude  to  the  Almighty." 

This  digression  makes  it  unnecessary  further 
to  explain  Mr.  Schiff's  interest  in  Jewish 
religious  education  of  all  kinds,  even  if  the 
institution  were  not  in  exact  accord  with  his 
own  views.  Frequently  he  quoted  the  sen- 
tence: "Would  that  all  the  Lord's  people  were 
prophets." 

He  was  a  generous  supporter  of  the  Hebrew 
Union  College,  making  gifts  to  its  Endowment 
Fund,  its  Building  Fund,  bequeathed  $100,000 
to  it,  and  in  other  ways  indicated  his  in- 
terest in  its  progress.  He  attended  the 
dedication  of  its  new  buildings,  maintained 
an  affectionate  relationship  with  its  vener- 
able president.  Dr.  Kohler,  and  made  a  large 
gift  to  the  Pension  Fund  of  the  Union  of 
American  Hebrew  Congregations.  Shortly 
before  his  death  the  College  conferred  upon 
him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Hebrew 
Letters. 

The  Isaac  Elchanan  Theological  Seminary, 
better  known  as  the  Yeshibah  of  New  York, 
also  claimed  his  aid.  In  1905  he  hoped  to 
bring  about  a  useful  modification  in  the  policy 
of  the  Yeshibah,  and  at  the  same  time  co-or- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  31 

dinate  its  work  with  that  of  the  Seminary.  A 
conference  was  called  by  him  to  this  end,  and 
an  agreement  was  entered  into  conditioned 
upon  which  he  granted  his  assistance.  Much 
to  his  regret,  this  understanding  was  not  car- 
ried out. 

Secondary  education  he  recognized  not  only 
as  intrinsically  important  but  essential  for  the 
institutions  of  higher  learning  which  he  so 
greatly  prized.  And  so  it  was  that  he  inter- 
ested himself  in  the  Bureau  of  Education  of  the 
New  York  Kehillah,  to  which  Bureau  he  became 
a  generous  contributor  and  whose  activities  he 
followed  with  unflagging  concern.  He  like- 
wise was  a  liberal  patron  of  the  Up-Town 
Talmud  Torah,  and  of  many  similar  establish- 
ments. 

He  had  a  good  knowledge  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture and  a  deep  interest  in  its  diffusion.  Prior 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Jewish  Publication 
Society  of  America  he  would  occasionally  aid 
an  author  to  publish  a  work  by  guaranteeing 
its  cost  to  the  publishing  firm.  He  had  a  plan 
in  mind  to  set  aside  a  sum  of  money  to  create 
a  Fund  for  this  purpose,  when  the  project  for 
a  Publication  Society  began  to  take  shape. 
He  was  abroad  in  1888  when  the  meeting  which 


32  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

organized  the  Society  was  held.  He  cabled 
his  greetings  and  five  thousand  dollars.  Al- 
though never  in  any  way  associated  with  the 
management  of  this  Society,  he  remained  its 
steadfast  friend,  and  through  his  interest  and 
generosity  enabled  it  to  make  the  preparations 
for  several  important  contributions  to  Jewish 
literature. 

He  was  a  constant  reader  of  the  Bible,  and 
strongly  favored  the  idea  of  a  new  English 
translation  by  Jewish  scholars.  In  1908  he 
presented  the  sum  of  $50,000  to  the  Society 
to  enable  it  to  carry  out  this  undertaking,  and 
its  successful  completion  was  a  source  of  great 
happiness  to  him.  The  first  copy  on  India 
paper,  elegantly  bound,  was  presented  to  him 
with  a  suitable  inscription. 

That  he  was  permitted  to  have  the  merit 
of  having  done  this  pleased  him  greatly,  and 
he  used  to  read  from  this  copy  to  his  grand- 
children, though  for  his  own  study  he  went 
back  to  a  familiar  Hebrew  edition  with  a 
German  translation  and  commentaries. 

A  dinner  was  given  to  celebrate  the  com- 
pletion of  the  manuscript  of  this  translation, 
and  at  it  he  announced  his  intention  to  make 
further  provision  for  the  publication  of  Jewish 


A  Biographical  Sketch  33 

literature,  both  in  the  original  and  translation. 
For  this  purpose  he  gave  another  Fund  of 
$50,000  for  the  publication,  in  text  and  trans- 
lation, of  a  selection  of  the  Jewish  Classics. 
This  work  was  delayed  by  the  World  War, 
but  it  may  be  expected  that  not  many  years 
will  elapse  before  this  Series — a  further  monu- 
ment to  his  interest  in  Jewish  learning  and 
literature — will  begin  to  appear.  Not  con- 
tent with  these  gifts,  he  also  gave  to  the  Pub- 
lication Society  one-half  of  the  sum  necessary 
to  create  a  press  for  the  printing  of  Hebrew 
works. 

The  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  a  monumental 
work  which,  in  spite  of  shortcomings,  has  been 
of  great  service  in  the  spread  of  Jewish  knowl- 
edge, was  undertaken  by  the  publishers  as  a 
purely  business  enterprise  without  a  clear  ap- 
preciation of  the  great  cost  and  labor  involved. 
After  the  first  volume  appeared  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  work  was  threatened.  Mr. 
Schiff  had  not  favored  the  undertaking,  be- 
lieving that  the  time  was  not  ripe  nor  the 
plans  well  matured.  At  the  invitation  of 
Isidor  Straus,  however,  be  attended  a  small 
conference,  and,  fearing  that  the  honor  of 
American  Jewry  would  suffer   if  this   widely- 


SJj,  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

advertised  work  should  remain  a  torso,  lie 
became  one  of  a  number  to  aid  in  rendering 
its  completion  possible. 

He  realized  that  the  library  of  the  Seminary 
in  New  York  was  designed  for  scholars  and, 
situated  as  it  was  on  the  Heights  beyond 
Columbia  University,  was  far  from  the  center 
of  Jewish  population.  He  knew,  too,  that 
the  search  after  Jewish  lore  was  unquenchable 
in  the  Jewish  soul  and  that  many  a  merchant 
or  mechanic  or  news-boy  might,  by  reason  of 
the  Jewish  tragedy  which  forced  the  great 
migration  from  Russia  to  America,  be  a  stu- 
dent or  even  a  scholar.  To  render  books 
accessible  to  these  and  to  professional  men 
living  in  the  center  of  the  city  he  made  pos- 
sible the  establishment  of  the  very  excellent 
Jewish  Department  of  the  New  York  Public 
Library,  which  is  probably  the  most  largely 
used  Jewish  collection  in  the  world. 

In  1911  Mr.  Herbert  Putnam,  the  Librarian 
of  Congress,  approached  Mr.  Schiff  with  a 
view  to  securing  a  considerable  Jewish  library 
which  was  then  offered  for  sale.  After  con- 
sultation and  consideration  he  agreed  to  make 
this  gift  to  the  National  Library  with  the 
understanding  that  a  competent  Semitic  scholar 


A  Biographical  Sketch  35 

would  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  collection 
and  that  funds  would  be  provided  for  its  growth 
and  upkeep.  By  this  arrangement  an  import- 
ant nucleus  for  a  Jewish  library  was  established 
at  Washington  which  bids  fair  to  develop 
steadily  and  provide  opportunity  for  the  ever- 
increasing  number  of  students  who  resort  to 
the  National  Capitol.  Under  the  generous 
system  of  inter-library  loans  this  collection  is 
also  made  available  to  students  all  over  the 
country. 

Much  earlier  than  some  of  these  enterprises 
in  behalf  of  Jewish  and  Semitic  learning  was 
Mr.  Schiff's  interest  in  that  department  of 
study  at  Harvard  University.  Through  fam- 
ily connections  he  became  attracted  to  this 
ancient  American  seat  of  learning.  Both  of 
his  brothers-in-law  were  Harvard  men — Morris 
Loeb,  a  distinguished  chemist,  who  unhappily 
died  in  his  early  prime,  and  James  Loeb,  well 
known  for  his  collections  of  Greek  antiquities, 
the  publications  describing  them,  and  particu- 
larly for  the  Loeb  Classical  Library,  that  re- 
markable production,  originally  designed  to 
cover  in  text  and  translation  the  entire  Greek 
and  Latin  literature  from  Homer  till  the  fall 
of  Constantinople  in  1453,  of  which  some  two 


36  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

hundred  volumes  have  already  appeared.  Mr. 
Schiff  was  also  strongly  drawn  by  the  great 
personality  of  President  Charles  Eliot,  with 
whom  he  formed  a  lasting  friendship.  When 
he  was  invited  in  1889  to  act  as  a  member  of 
the  advisory  committee  on  the  Semitic  depart- 
ment of  Harvard  University  he  readily  ac- 
quiesced. Among  his  most  notable  acts  was 
the  establishment  of  the  Semitic  Museum  at 
Harvard.  A  number  of  gentlemen  had  made 
gifts  for  this  purpose,  but  at  Mr.  Schiff's 
request  they  were  withdrawn  in  order  that 
he  might  have  the  pleasure  of  erecting  the 
building  and  providing  for  the  collection 
himseK.  It  was  also  due  to  his  generosity 
that  Harvard  was  enabled  to  send  an  expedi- 
tion to  Samaria,  which  uncovered  that  inter- 
esting site,  and  secured  inscriptions  which  have 
proved  important  for  a  knowledge  of  the  early 
life  of  Israel  and  for  Semitic  epigraphy.  In- 
cidentally these  activities  brought  him  into 
close  and  affectionate  relations  with  Professor 
David  G.  Lyon,  the  well-known  Assyriologist 
who  is  curator  of  the  Museum. 

But  his  interest  in  higher  education  was  by 
no  means  confined  to  Semitic  learning.  He 
was  one  of  the  earlv  friends  of  Barnard  Col- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  37 

lege,  an  institution  for  the  education  of  women 
connected  with  Columbia  University.  With 
Seth  Low,  its  president  and  sometime  mayor 
of  New  York,  he  had  intimate  relations,  both 
political  and  personal.  For  a  number  of 
years  he  was  treasurer  of  Barnard  College,  and 
to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his 
arrival  in  America  he  made  a  gift  of  a  large 
sum  to  that  institution  for  the  erection  of  a 
recreation  hall  for  the  students.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  in  this  act  he  not  only  aided  the 
cause  of  higher  education  but  marked  his 
recognition  of  the  opportunities  which  America 
had  afforded  him  by  a  gift  which  would  be 
useful  to  students  of  all  creeds  and  which  was 
a  token  that  all  America  and  not  a  mere  sec- 
tion of  it  was  embraced  within  his  noble 
heart. 

In  1898  he  founded  the  Schiff  Fellowship  in 
Political  Economy  in  Columbia  University. 

In  1912  he  made  a  gift  of  $100,000  to  Cor- 
nell University  to  aid  in  the  promotion  of 
Germanic  studies,  and  during  the  World  War 
he  withdrew  the  implied  limitation  upon  the 
purpose  to  which  the  fund  was  to  be  devoted 
so  that  it  might  be  applied  to  the  furtherance 
of  the  study  of  any  modern  language  or  liter- 


38  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

ature.  He  was  a  contributor  to  the  funds  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University  and  of  other  insti- 
tutions of  learning.  He  also  aided  in  the 
establishment  of  the  University  of  Franlvfort, 
his  native  town. 

IV 

Charity  in  its  large  sense — the  doing  of 
deeds  of  goodness  and  mercy — Mr.  Schiff  was 
devoted  to  both  as  a  Jew  and  a  humanitarian. 
It  was  his  rigid  rule  to  give  at  least  his  tithe 
to  the  poor.  He  was,  however,  a  strong 
believer  in  organized  charity,  either  as  ex- 
pressed through  institutions  or  carried  on  by 
an  individual  based  upon  inquiry  and  investi- 
gation— and  through  all  his  acts  of  loving- 
kindness  ran  the  feeling  that  as  God  had 
blessed  him  with  plenty,  it  was  but  right  and 
just  that  he  should  share  it  with  those  less 
fortunate. 

Of  the  numerous  charities  in  which  he  was 
interested,  to  none  did  he  give  the  attention 
which  he  lavished  on  the  Montefiore  Home 
and  Hospital.  This  institution,  established 
on  the  one  hundredth  birthday  of  that  great 
Jew,  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  was  created  at  the 
suggestion  of  Adolphus  S.  Solomons  in  1884. 


A  Biographical  Sketch  39 

Mr.  Schiff  was  elected  president  in  1885,  and 
held  that  office  for  thirty-five  years.  He  saw 
it  grow  from  a  small  home  for  chronic  invalids 
to  one  of  the  greatest  hospitals  in  the  country, 
supporting  over  eight  hundred  beds,  with  a 
distinguished  medical  staff,  laboratories  for  re- 
search, and  a  modern  equipment,  complete  in  all 
of  its  appointments.  Much  of  this  extraordinary 
achievement  was  due  to  his  own  efforts  or  to 
his  personal  gifts.  He  was  familiar  with  every 
detail  of  the  management  of  this  model  hos- 
pital, and  knew  personally  all  but  the  transient 
patients.  Besides  attending  numerous  board 
and  committee  meetings  he  visited  the  hos- 
pital every  Sunday  morning,  spending  the 
entire  morning  and  allowing  no  other  call  or 
engagement  to  take  him  away  from  this  duty. 
He  rarely  wrote  a  letter  about  the  Montefiore 
Home  or  made  a  reference  to  it  without  speak- 
ing of  it  as  his  "labor  of  love."  In  July, 
19'20,  one  Sunday  morning,  when  already  ill, 
he  came  in  from  the  country  to  make  his  cus- 
tomary and  last  inspection  and  to  chat  with 
the  older  patients.  The  splendid  pavilion 
which  he  provided  was  just  approaching  com- 
pletion, and  he  was  happy  to  think  that  he 
had  been  able  to  create  this  additional  instru- 


JfO  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

ment  for  the  alleviation  of  human  suflFering. 
It  was  always  a  cause  of  satisfaction  and 
pride  on  his  part  that  this  institution  was 
conducted  strictly  according  to  the  Jewish 
law,  and  that  it  contained  a  dignified  and 
charming  synagogue. 

The  Henry  Street  Settlement  was  another 
work  of  mercy  and  justice  which  had  a  strong 
hold  on  his  heart  and  mind.  This  institution 
under  the  inspiring  leadership  of  Miss  Lillian 
Wald,  not  only  performed  the  function  of  a 
settlement  in  a  congested  neighborhood  but 
also  established  and  spread  the  idea  of  dis- 
trict visiting  nurses.  In  illness  the  nurse  has 
always  been,  even  in  the  days  before  training 
was  known,  an  agency  as  potent  in  the  care 
of  the  sick  as  the  physician.  All  know  what 
the  modern  trained  nurse  has  meant  to  the 
hospital  and  to  the  home.  But  what  of  the 
ailing  poor.''  To  bring  this  indispensable 
relief  to  the  home  of  the  needy  was  the  admir- 
able conception  of  Miss  Wald,  and  for  its 
realization  she  found  Mr.  Schiff,  with  others 
of  his  family  and  many  friends,  devoted  cham- 
pions. It  was  not  simply  the  work  but  the 
atmosphere  of  the  place  from  which  it  was 
conducted  that  exalted  his  spirit  so  that  he 


A  Biographical  Sketch  Jj,! 

not  infrequently  made  pilgrimages  to  Henry 
Street,  and  ate  his  evening  meal  in  that  abode 
of  high  thinking  and  good  cheer.  But  his 
interest  in  the  visiting  nurse  was  not  confined 
to  one  institution.  He  gave  a  fund  for  rural 
district  nursing,  so  badly  needed,  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Red 
Cross,  of  whose  New  York  County  Chapter 
he  was  for  many  years  treasurer. 

At  the  time  of  the  Kishineff  massacre,  with- 
out organization  of  any  kind  and  with  the 
help  of  but  a  few  friends,  he  brought  together 
throughout  the  United  States  a  vast  sum  for 
the  victims  of  that  atrocity. 

When  the  World  War  broke  out  in  1914,  the 
first  call  for  help  from  the  Jewish  population 
of  the  affected  zone  was  a  request  for  $50,000 
received  from  Mr.  Morgenthau,  then  Ambas- 
sador at  Constantinople,  for  the  Jews  of 
Palestine.  To  meet  this  request  the  American 
Jewish  Committee  voted  $25,000,  and  Mr. 
Schiff  personally  offered  to  give  $12,500  (the 
first  of  many  larger  gifts),  if  the  provisional 
Zionist  Committee  would  give  a  like  amount. 
The  condition  was  met,  and  there  was  thus 
begun  the  great  work  of  the  Jewish  War 
Relief   Committees,   which,   through   the   cen- 


Ii.2  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

tralized  agency  of  the  Joint  Distribution  Com- 
mittee, under  the  devoted  leadership  of  Mr. 
Schiff's  son-in-law,  Felix  M.  Warburg,  has 
distributed  nearly  forty  million  dollars. 

Into  the  work  of  these  collecting  and  distrib- 
uting agencies  Mr.  Schiff,  though  then  nearly 
seventy  years  of  age,  entered  with  great  ardor. 
He  attended  meetings,  large  and  small,  organ- 
ized dinners,  headed  drives,  wrote  and  tele- 
graphed, gave  largely  himself,  in  fact  did 
everything  in  his  power  to  alleviate  the  dread- 
ful sufferings  which  the  war  brought  in  greater 
measure  upon  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe 
than  upon  any  other  section  of  stricken  human- 
ity, with  the  possible  exception  of  the  Arme- 
nians. 

And  these  labors  were  being  carried  on 
alongside  of  equally  strenuous  work  for  the 
Red  Cross  and  the  various  war  work  agencies, 
to  all  of  which  Mr.  Schiff  devoted  himself 
with  enthusiasm.  He  took  a  particular  inter- 
est in  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board,  constituted 
of  various  national  Jewish  organizations,  to 
contribute  their  share  to  the  welfare  of  the 
American  soldiers  and  sailors  and  particularly 
to  provide  for  the  religious  needs  of  those  of 
the  Jewish  faith,  an  organization,  in  the  work 


A  Biographical  Sketch  Ii-S 

of  which  his  son,  Mortimer  L.  Schiff,  greatly 
aided.  Yet  he  was  not  unmindful  of  the 
good  work  of  other  creeds.  He  made  large 
contributions  to  the  war  work  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  the  Knights 
of  Columbus,  and  the  Salvation  Army.  Amer- 
ican patriot  that  he  was,  it  was  the  men  in 
uniform  whom  he  was  eager  to  serve  irrespective 
of  their  creed. 


But  Mr.  Schiff  was  not  content  to  limit  his 
labors  on  behalf  of  his  coreligionists  to  the 
promotion  of  a  religious  life  and  the  allevia- 
tion of  their  sufferings.  He  had  imbibed  the 
atmosphere  of  American  liberty  and  equality. 
He  knew  that  in  the  North  American  Colonies 
Jews  had  been  granted  British  citizenship  long 
before  it  was  accorded  them  in  the  mother 
country.  He  remembered  the  words  of  Wash- 
ington spoken  to  the  Jewish  congregation  of 
Newport:  "It  is  no  longer  toleration  that  is 
spoken  of,"  and  whenever  he  saw  the  oppres- 
sion of  his  people,  his  righteous  indignation 
impelled  him  to  some  sort  of  action— for  to 
think  of  something  meant  with  him  that  action 
should  follow. 


Jj-Ji.  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

Mr.  Schiff  had  for  years  been  acquainted  with 
the  misery  of  his  brethren  in  the  Russia  of 
the  Czars.  Like  most  Jews  of  the  Western 
world  he  had  in  his  earher  days  known  httle 
about  the  Jews  in  Russia.  In  spite  of  the 
supposed  soHdarity  of  the  Jewish  people, 
there  was  but  little  contact  between  the  Jews 
of  the  West  and  of  the  East  and  even  less  knowl- 
edge the  one  of  the  other.  Graetz,  the  great 
historian  of  the  Jews,  whose  monumental 
work  was  finished  in  1875,  practically  ignored 
the  Jews  of  Russia. 

The  increase  in  the  hostility  of  czaristic 
Russia  to  its  Jewish  subjects,  which  began  in 
1881,  evidenced  by  innumerable  restrictive 
laws  and  regulations,  added  to  in  1890,  and 
followed  by  that  horror,  the  "pogrom,"  govern- 
ment-instituted massacres  and  looting  of  the 
Jews,  gradually  brought  about  a  forced  migra- 
tion of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  from 
Russia  to  America,  By  reports  and  more 
still  by  actual  contact  with  the  refugees  the 
facts  became  known  to  Jews  in  America,  and 
Mr.  Schiff  was  stirred  to  the  depths  of  his 
being  by  the  misery  and  suffering  that  his 
coreligionists — veritable  martyrs  to  the  faith 
— were  enduring.     For,  be  it  understood,  that, 


A  Biographical  Sketch  45 

in  spite  of  all  statements  that  economic  and 
racial  questions  were  at  the  bottom  of  these 
persecutions,  the  waters  of  baptism  into  the 
Greek-Orthodox  Church  could  always  wash 
away  economic  or  racial  disabilities.  Nor 
was  it  only  the  Jews  who  were  suffering  in 
those  days.  The  Catholics  of  Poland  and 
the  Protestants  (few  in  number  though  they 
were),  in  fact  all  dissenters  from  the  Greek- 
Orthodox  Church  were  under  the  harrow. 
There  was  thus  presented  a  thoroughly  cruel, 
illiberal,  mediaeval  regime  from  which  modern 
man  had  no  hope. 

If  one  wishes  to  have  confirmation  of  the 
truth  of  the  beliefs  held  by  Mr.  Schiff  and 
others  as  to  the  policy  of  the  Czar's  Govern- 
ment towards  the  Jews,  it  can  be  found  in 
the  published  Memoirs  of  Count  Witte  who 
held  the  important  oflBces  of  Minister  of 
Finance  and  Prime  Minister  to  the  Czar. 

Mr.  Schiff  felt  that  the  big  questions  con- 
nected with  the  condition  of  the  Jews  in 
Russia  and  Roumania  and  their  immigration 
into  the  United  States  required  drastic  action. 
Sometimes  he  took  it  after  consultation  with 
others  and  sometimes  without.  Occasionally 
his   burning  indignation   and   zeal   outran   his 


^6  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

discretion.  On  one  occasion  he  seriously  pro- 
posed to  President  Roosevelt  that  the  United 
States  should  intervene  in  Russia  as  it  had  in 
Cuba!  Again  he  asked  Mr.  Roosevelt  to 
send  a  representative  to  the  conference  at 
Algeciras,  called  in  1906  to  consider  a  settle- 
ment of  affairs  in  Morocco,  with  instructions 
to  labor  for  the  securing  of  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship for  the  large  number  of  Jews  in  that 
country.  President  Roosevelt  did  appoint 
Mr.  Henry  White,  and  thus  took  part  in  an 
International  European  conference  in  which  no 
American  interest  was  involved.  Mr.  Schiff 
soon  came  to  feel,  however,  that  no  individual 
should  act  on  his  own  responsibility  in  such 
momentous  affairs. 

There  had  been  formed  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  a  small  social  group  known 
as  the  Wanderers — a  Saturday  night  supper 
club.  This  company  was  a  variegated  one. 
It  included  severaj  lawyers,  bankers,  literary 
men,  scientific  men,  Jewish  scholars,  journ- 
alists, a  painter,  and  an  architect.  These 
men  smoked  and  talked,  as  such  a  group 
naturally  would,  about  every  subject  under 
the  sun;  but  largely  under  the  influence  of 
Jewish  conditions  in  Russia   and  particularly 


A  Biographical  Sketch  1^1 

of  the  brutal  outrage  at  KishinefF,  they 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  an  organization 
should  be  brought  together  calculated  to  help 
secure  human  rights  for  the  Jews  in  Russia 
and  in  other  lands  where  they  were  denied. 

Moreover  there  was  one  grievance  which  the 
Jews  of  America  had  on  their  own  account — 
one  which  they  felt  to  be  the  single  blot  upon 
their  American  citizenship.  In  the  days  be- 
fore the  World  War  the  passport  was  for 
American  citizens  travelhng  abroad  an  amiable 
formality,  and  the  visa,  the  bugbear  of  these 
latter  years,  was  practically  unknown,  except 
in  the  case  of  two  countries — neither  of  which 
had  reached  the  standards  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion— Russia  and  Turkey.  In  theory  the 
passport  is  a  letter  of  credence  given  to  a 
national  of  a  country  proceeding  abroad  and 
invoking  courtesy  on  the  part  of  the  country 
or  countries  which  he  proposes  to  visit.  There 
is  no  obligation  in  international  law  except  as 
required  by  treaty  provision  for  one  country 
to  receive  a  national  of  any  other  country 
The  old  rule  that  everyone  not  a  Greek  was  a 
barbarian  still  held  in  theory.  But  in  prac- 
tice and  as  the  result  of  travel  and  commerce 
this     idea   had   been   modified,   and   in   many 


Ji,8  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

cases  treaties  had  actually  been  made  granting 
the  nationals  of  the  contracting  parties  mutual 
right  of  travel  in  the  respective  countries. 
Between  Russia  and  the  United  States  such  a 
treaty  had  been  entered  into  in  1832. 

But  Russia  held  that  this  treaty  did  not 
apply  to  American  citizens  of  the  Jewish  faith 
and  the  Russian  consuls  in  the  United  States 
interrogated  every  person  applying  for  a  visa 
as  to  his  religion.  If  the  religion  was  given 
as  Jewish  the  visa  was  withheld.  Incidentally 
it  should  be  said  that  the  same  discourtesy 
was  extended  to  Roman  Catholic  priests  and 
Protestant  missionaries. 

It  was  to  discuss  and  solve  questions  like 
these  that  Mr.  Schiff  joined  with  others  in  the 
formation,  in  1906,  of  an  organization  known 
as  the  American  Jewish  Committee,  to  which 
he  devoted  much  time  and  attention  and  in 
whose  work  he  was  always  active. 

As  many  misstatements  have  been  made 
about  the  passport  question  and  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  18.S2  with  Russia,  and 
propagandists  have  put  a  sinister  interpreta- 
tion upon  it,  it  may  be  said  without  qualifica- 
tion that  the  attempt  to  secure  a  proper  ob- 
servance of   the  treaty  of   1832,  on  the  basis 


A  Biographical  Sketch  4^9 

of  equal  rights  of  all  American  citizens  under 
it,  had  been  recognized  as  the  duty  of  every 
American  President  and  Secretary  of  State  for 
forty  years.  Every  diplomatic  expedient  had 
been  tried,  and  the  Czar's  Government  had 
always  answered  by  delays  or  evasions  or  the 
"appointment  of  a  commission  to  examine  into 
the  whole  Jewish  question." 

In  a  letter  to  Count  Witte,  when  the  latter 
was  leaving  America  after  the  Portsmouth  con- 
ference, in  1905,  President  Roosevelt  urged  that 
the  Czar's  Government  straighten  out  the  pass- 
port question  and  remove  the  only  possible 
cause  of  irritation  between  the  United  States 
and  Russia.  Count  Witte  says  that  he  gave 
this  letter  to  the  Czar  in  person,  but  for  five 
years  no  action  was  taken. 

At  the  close  of  President  Roosevelt's  admin- 
istration, the  American  Jewish  Committee 
brought  the  subject  to  the  attention  of  Presi- 
dent Taft,  who  endeavored  to  solve  it  by  dip- 
lomatic measures  with  the  same  lack  of  success 
as  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  his  predecessors. 

Thereupon  the  proposal  was  made  that  since 
Russia  was,  in  fact,  and  had  been  for  many 
years,  actually  violating  the  treaty  by  main- 
taining that  under  its  terms  she  had  the  right 


50  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

to  discriminate  between  the  nationals  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  pursuance  of  that  right 
to  conduct  an  inquisition  into  their  rehgious 
behefs  on  American  soil,  steps  should  be  taken 
to  abrogate  this  treaty.  This  proposal  was 
laid  before  President  Taft  at  a  conference  at 
which  Senator  Knox  (then  Secretary  of  State) 
and  W.  W.  Rockhill  (then  Ambassador  to  St. 
Petersburg),  Mr.  Schiff,  and  several  others 
were  present.  Mr.  Schiff  was  treated  with 
great  honor  on  that  occasion,  which  really 
reflected  the  respect  in  which  he  was  held. 
The  President,  with  the  insistence  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  gave  Mr.  Schiff  the  precedence 
at  his  right,  and  for  two  hours  the  subject  was 
discussed.  Some  time  later  President  Taft 
gave  a  luncheon  for  a  number  of  Jewish  gentle- 
men, and  told  them  in  effect  that  our  Govern- 
ment could  do  nothing.  As  the  party  left  the 
White  House,  one  of  the  companj^  said:  "Alas, 
we  are  in  exile;"  but  Mr.  Schiff  said:  "This 
means  a  fight."  An  appeal  was  made  to  the 
American  people  and  later  to  Congress,  and 
finally  notice  of  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty 
was  given  by  President  Taft  after  a  resolution 
to  that  effect  had  passed  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives with  one  dissenting  vote,  and  Mem- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  51 

bers  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations  had  informed  the  President  that  it 
would  pass  the  Senate  unanimously. 

Mr.  Schiff  attended  the  hearing  on  this  sub- 
ject before  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  a  full  ses- 
sion. The  classic  presentation  of  the  subject 
by  Judge  Mayer  Sulzberger  and  the  masterly 
legal  argument  of  Mr.  Louis  Marshall,  lasting 
for  three  hours,  in  which  he  met  all  questions 
and  all  comers  with  answers  based  on  interna- 
tional and  constitutional  law,  treaties,  and 
precedents,  greatly  impressed  Mr.  Schiff,  and 
when  he  was  called  upon  to  speak  he  said  that 
he  had  nothing  to  add  to  their  presentation, 
but  that  he  had  a  request  to  make.  "I  know," 
he  said,  "you  gentlemen  are  going  to  pass  this 
resolution.  All  I  ask  is  that  you  make  it 
unanimous."  And  they  did.  This  was  the 
shortest  and  most  effective  speech  a  man  could 
make. 

His  profound  gratification  at  the  course  of 
events  he  expressed  a  few  days  later  in  a  letter 
in  which  he  wrote:  "The  action  of  the  House 
has  been  most  gratifying  and  I  agree  with  you 
that  we  may  now  expect  equal  action  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate.      It  is  all  like  a  dream  and 


52  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

I  little  thought  when  I  said  to  the  President 
last  February  after  he  had  turned  us  down, 
'this  question  will  not  down,  Mr.  President, 
we  had  hoped  that  you  would  see  that  justice 
be  done  us,  but  you  have  decided  otherwise; 
we  shall  now  go  to  the  American  people'  that 
the  latter  would  be  so  readily  aroused,  and 
that  action  on  their  part  would  be  so  prompt 
and  effectual.  Louis  Marshall  has  outdone 
himself  all  through  and  to  him  more  than  to  any- 
body else  is  due  what  we  have  accomplished." 
This  incident  is  narrated  rather  fully  to 
show  what  part  Mr.  Schiff  had  in  it  and  the 
motive  which  actuated  him  and  his  colleagues. 
It  was  in  no  sense  an  international  action,  and 
was  dictated  by  the  determination  to  clear 
away  the  last  vestige  of  governmental  dis- 
crimination against  the  Jews  in  America  on 
the  part  of  a  foreign  government  and  to  secure 
recognition  of  the  inviolability  of  the  American 
passport  in  the  hands  of  all  of  its  citizens  with- 
out distinction  of  creed.  The  benefits  of  this 
action  would  have  accrued  equally  to  Catholic 
priests  and  Protestant  missionaries.  It  was 
in  effect  the  most  signal  act  of  justice  to  the 
Jews  ever  undertaken  by  a  great  State  and 
heartened  the  Jews  of  Russia  in  their  misery. 


^^ 


A  Biographical  Sketch  53 

VI 

Palestine — the  Holy  Land — has  always  loom- 
ed large  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  Jewish 
people.  The  poets  sang  of  Zion  and  the  people 
daily  prayed  for  their  restoration  to  the  land  of 
their  fathers.  Mr.  Schiff  had  joined  that  wing 
of  the  Synagogue  in  which  the  prayer  for  the 
restoration  had  been  eliminated,  and  the  mis- 
sion of  Israel  was  held  to  be  the  bringing  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  one  true  God  to  all  the 
peoples  of  all  the  lands  in  which  Israel  was 
dispersed.  But  there  were  several  strains  of 
Judaism  woven  into  the  texture  of  his  soul, 
and  none  chanted  more  fervently  than  he: 
"For  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  Torah  and 
the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem." 

When  the  modern  Zionist  movement  was 
organized  by  Theodor  Herzl  in  1897,  Mr. 
Schiff,  like  many  Jews,  Orthodox,  Conserva- 
tive, and  Reform,  kept  aloof  from  it.  The 
absence  of  any  distinctly  religious  pronounce- 
ment in  the  Basle  platform,  the  presence  and 
the  leadership  of  a  number  of  non-religious 
Jews,  and  the  secular  nationalist  implications 
of  the  movement  offended  him,  and  he  vigor- 
ously expressed  the  opinion  in  public  and  in 


5Ji.  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

private  that  his  smpathies  were  with  Jews  by 
faith  and  not  Jews  by  race. 

Open-mindedness,  however,  was  one  of  his 
most  distinguishing  traits,  and  he  was  attracted 
by  the  nobihty  and  loftiness  of  the  character 
of  Theodor  Herzl.  The  news  of  the  death  of 
that  great  man  appeared  in  the  press  on  a 
Sabbath  morning.  Mr.  Schiff  was  very  much 
saddened  by  the  tidings.  For  many  minutes 
he  was  silent,  and  then  after  expressing  his 
grief,  he  related  that  the  year  previous  he  had 
made  an  appointment  in  Europe  to  meet  Herzl, 
that  the  latter's  health  prevented  the  meeting, 
but  that  instead  he  had  held  a  conference  with 
one  of  Herzl's  most  trusted  lieutenants,  that 
Herzl's  plans  had  been  explained  to  him,  and 
that  to  his  regret  he  had  been  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  they  could  not  be  carried  out. 

Meanwhile  he  was  showing  his  interest  in 
Palestine  by  aiding  two  projects — the  Jewish 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  planned  by 
the  late  Aaron  Aaronsohn,  the  discoverer  of 
wild  wheat,  and  the  Hebrew  Technical  Insti- 
tute at  Haifa,  originally  begun  by  the  Wissotzky 
family  of  Russia.  To  the  latter  institution  he 
made  large  gifts,  although  he  declined  mem- 
bership   on    the    governing    boards    of    both. 


A  Biographical  Sketch  55 

These  institutions  proved  a  great  disappoint- 
ment to  him. 

This  interest  in  Palestine  did  not,  however, 
modify  his  attitude  toward  pohtical  Zionism. 
When  his  friend  Dr.  Schechter  joined  the  Zion- 
ist movement,  in  1906,  Mr.  Schiff  engaged  in  a 
pubHe  discussion  with  him  in  the  New  York 
Times  in  which  he  expressed  the  opinion  that 
Zionism  was  incompatible  with  American  citi- 
zenship. A  decade  later  he  wrote:  "It  is  quite 
evident  that  there  is  a  serious  break  coming 
between  those  who  wish  to  force  the  formation 
of  a  distinct  Hebraic  element  in  the  United 
States,  as  distinct  from  those  of  us  who  desire 
to  be  American  in  attachment,  thought  and 
action  and  Jews  because  of  our  religion  as  well 
as  cultural  attainments  of  our  people. 

I  am  quite  convinced  of  it  that  the  Amer- 
ican people  will  not  willingly  permit  the  forma- 
tion of  a  large  separate  Hebraic  group  with 
national  aspirations,  and  that  if  not  we,  our 
posterity  are  to  become  sufferers  in  conse- 
quence." 

With  reference  to  the  proposal  that  the  Jews 
should  seek  representation  as  a  nation  in  the 
Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  he  WTote  on 
August  29,  1920:    "In  view  of  what  has  been 


56  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

proposed  by  the  Committee  of  Jewish  Delega- 
tions in  Paris,  we  can  only  pray,  that  God 
grant  us  protection  against  our  friends  and 
leave  us  to  get  on  with  our  enemies  as  best 
we  can." 

As  the  war  progressed  and  General  Allenby 
captured  Jerusalem,  when  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion indicated  a  break-up  of  the  then  great 
centers  of  Russian-Jewish  learning,  and  the 
horrors  of  the  Ukraine  were  super-added,  Mr. 
Schiff  began  to  despair  for  the  future  of  Jewry 
in  Eastern  Europe.  He  adopted  a  more  favor- 
able view  on  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Pales- 
tine, which  he  looked  upon  as  a  future  center 
of  Judaism  and  of  Jewish  culture.  He  made 
considerable  contributions  to  various  funds  for 
the  development  of  Palestine,  and  even  offered 
to  join  the  Zionist  organization  provided  that 
upon  the  occasion  of  his  being  accepted  as  a 
member  a  statement  which  he  had  prepared 
would  be  published  by  the  organization.  The 
offer  was  declined,  and  Mr.  Schiff  lived  and 
died  outside  of  the  Zionist  camp. 

The  war  period  witnessed  a  great  upheaval 
in  Jewish  life  in  America.  One  of  its  mani- 
festations was  the  growth,  under  Zionist  leader- 
ship, of  a'  nationalist  movement  with  the  en- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  57 

deavor  to  capture  or,  failing  this,  to  overthrow 
existing  Jewish  organizations  which  did  not 
accept  the  new  dogma.  Mr.  Schiff  was  one 
of  those  who  initially  strongly  opposed  these 
views.  This  fact  and  various  remarks  of  his 
at  meetings  in  1916  made  him  the  target  for 
violent  attacks  in  the  Yiddish  press  and  plat- 
form. He  was  deeply  wounded  by  these 
attacks,  and  made  a  statement  which  has 
dignity  and  pathos  that  remind  one  of  the 
words  of  Samuel  after  Saul  was  crowned: 

"I  have  lived  for  fifty-one  years  in  New 
York.  I  am  now  almost  at  threescore  and 
ten,  and  I  believe  ever  since  I  have  grown 
into  manhood,  there  has  not  a  day  passed  that  I 
have  not  been  seeking  the  good  of  my  people. 

Whosoever  can  assert  that  for  the  time  he 
knows  me,  or  who  knows  of  me,  I  have  ever 
denied  myself  to  my  people,  have  denied  my- 
self to  their  wants,  have  denied  myself  to  any 
cause,  that  I  have  waited  until  Jewish  prob- 
lems have  been  brought  to  me  instead  of  going 
after  them  in  my  desire  to  cooperate,  that  I 
have  not  given,  not  only  of  my  means  but 
day  in  and  day  out  and  I  may  say  night  in  and 
and  night  out — have  not  given  of  myself,  let 
him  rise  and  accuse  me." 


58  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

His  last  days  were  saddened  by  the  appear- 
ance of  an  anti-Jewish  agitation  in  the  United 
States,  the  one  country  in  which  this  mediaeval 
monstrosity  had  never  found  a  lodgment.  He 
strongly  urged  the  American  Jewish  Committee 
not  to  notice  these  scandalous  attacks,  and  it 
was  out  of  deference  to  his  deeply  expressed 
feeling  and  the  pain  which  a  contrary  action 
would  have  given  him  during  his  illness  that 
his  colleagues,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  mis- 
understood, delayed  a  reply.  This  suspension 
of  judgment  in  a  vital  matter  is  a  measure  of 
the  respect  and  affection  which  his  long  services 
and  his  personality  inspired. 

vn 

This  narration,  it  is  hoped,  has  given  the 
impression  of  a  many-sided  man  of  affairs  and 
of  good  deeds,  always  anxious  to  be  of  use  to  his 
fellow-men  and  of  service  to  the  public.  But 
there  were  numerous  other  interests  and  inci- 
dents in  his  life,  deserving  of  at  least  a  word. 
Convinced  that  a  better  distribution  of  immi- 
gration was  desirable,  he  joined  in  a  plan  in- 
volving large  expenditure  and  much  trouble  to 
land  immigrants  at  the  port  of  Galveston  in 


A  Biographical  Sketch  59 

Texas  and  arrange  for  their  distribution  through 
the  Southwest.  He  provided  a  building  for 
the  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association  at  92nd 
Street  and  Lexington  Avenue,  in  New  York, 
and  interested  himself  in  the  growth  of  similar 
organizations  for  men  and  women.  He  aided 
in  the  building  of  a  large  number  of  synagogues 
in  small  towns  in  the  United  States,  always 
assuring  himself  by  investigation  that  the 
local  community  was  too  small  to  bear  the 
burden  itself.  He  conducted  a  lively  corre- 
spondence with  Baron  de  Hirsch,  and  became 
one  of  the  trustees  of  his  foundation  in  Amer- 
ica. He  was  received  in  private  audience  by 
the  king  of  England  in  1904  and  by  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany  in  1911.  He  served  on  the 
Board  of  Education  of  New  York,  and  was 
vice-president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
In  1893  he  anonymously  gave  a  fund  to  Seth 
Low  to  enable  students  of  Columbia  University 
who  did  not  possess  the  means  to  visit  the 
Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago.  He  pre- 
sented a  model  of  the  dinosaur  in  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  to  the  Natural 
History  Society  of  Frankfort.  He  was  chair- 
man of  the  East  Asiatic  section  of  the  Amer- 
ican Museum  of  Natural  History,  provided  the 


60  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

funds  for  an  Ethnological  expedition  to  China, 
and  made  gifts  to  the  Zoological  Gardens  in 
Bronx  Park.  He  interested  himself  in  the  devel- 
opment of  Cooper  Union,  and  presented  a  foun- 
tain for  Seward  Park  to  New  York  City.  He 
took  part  in  the  movement  to  create  a  park  at 
105th  Street  in  memory  of  Isidor  and  Ida  Straus, 
whose  heroic  death  at  the  sinking  of  the 
Titanic  produced  a  profound  impression,  and 
presided  at  the  dedication.  He  was  for  a 
number  of  years  a  jnember  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  New  York  Zoological  Society 
and  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children. 

He  was  keenly  interested  in  the  education 
and  development  of  the  colored  race,  made  a 
number  of  large  contributions  to  Tuskegee 
and  other  colored  institutions,  and  maintained 
a  close  friendship  with  Booker  T.  Washington 
and  his  successor.  Major  Moton. 

His  early  association  with  the  Jewish  Pris- 
oners' Aid  Society  developed  his  deep  interest 
in  the  problem  of  delinquency,  and  led  to  his 
being  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Jewish  Pro- 
tectory and  Aid  Society,  to  which  he  gave  a 
substantial  portion  of  its  original  building 
fund.       This   Society   now   covers   the   entire 


A  Biographical  Sketch  61 

field  of  delinquency  among  the  Jews  of  New 
York,  both  male  and  female,  adult  and  juvenile. 
He  was  also  very  much  interested  in  the  work 
of  the  Prison  Association  of  New  York  (non- 
sectarian  under  Protestant  auspices),  of  which 
he  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  at  the  time 
of  his  death. 

He  gave  hearty  support  to  the  work  of  the 
Hebrew  Free  Loan  Association,  as  he  thor- 
oughly believed  in  constructive  rather  than 
palliative  assistance.  With  this  same  thought 
in  mind,  he  founded  the  Self  Support  and  Self- 
Help  Funds  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities, 
which  he  maintained  single-handed  by  large 
annual  contributions. 

He  earnestly  advocated  co-operation  among 
those  serving  the  sick,  as  evidenced  by  the 
Hospital  Saturday  and  Sunday  Association, 
on  the  Committee  of  which  he  served  for  many 
years. 

VIII 

The  tale  of  good  deeds  is  not  to  be  numbered, 
and  if  this  story  is  told  aright  there  has  been 
awakened  an  interest  in  the  personality  of  the 
man  himself. 

On  May  6,   1875,  he  married  Theresa,  the 


6S  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

daughter  of  Solomon  and  Betty  Loeb,  people 
of  great  sweetness  of  life  and  disposition. 
Mrs.  Loeb  was  very  much  interested  in  the 
development  of  music,  and  herself  sent  many 
students  abroad  to  have  their  talents  culti- 
vated. The  relationship  of  members  of  the 
family  to  the  foundation  of  the  Musical  Arts 
Society  is  probably  due  to  her  influence.  The 
first  impulse  toward  Mr.  Schiff's  interest  in 
the  work  of  district  nursing  also  came  from 
Mrs.  Loeb.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Schiff  were 
born  two  children — Mortimer  L.  and  Frieda. 
The  former,  a  member  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Com- 
pany since  1900,  was  closely  associated  with  his 
father  in  his  business  and  other  activities,  the 
latter  married  Felix  M.  Warburg,  also  now  a 
member  of  the  firm  and  distinguished  for  his 
philanthropic  work.  With  Mrs.  Schiff's  par- 
ents, their  brothers  and  sisters,  and  with  their 
own  children,  and  later  grandchildren  and 
great  grandchildren,  a  wonderfully  sweet  do- 
mestic life  grew  up  of  which,  as  the  elders 
passed,  Mr.  Schiff  became  the  center.  In 
the  midst  of  modern  surroundings  he  main- 
tained a  relationship  with  all  the  members  of 
his  family  which  may  be  fairly  likened  in  its 
dignity  and  simplicity  to  that  of  the  patriarchs. 


A  Biographical  Sketch  63 

Mr.  Schiff  was  short  of  stature,  of  medium 
build  and  erect  carriage.  He  had  blue  eyes 
capable  of  expressing  compassion  or  indigna- 
tion. He  wore  a  beard  which  had  lately 
grown  white,  and  was  always  carefully  dressed 
appropriately  for  every  occasion.  A  flower 
usually  graced  his  button-hole. 

Promptness  was  a  distinguishing  trait.  He 
was  always  on  time  for  an  engagement,  and 
answered  every  letter  on  the  day  of  its  receipt. 
He  exacted  promptness  in  return.  He  hated 
waste,  saved  pieces  of  wrapping  paper  and 
string,  and  used  them  to  pack  up  with  his 
own  hands  the  newspapers  and  magazines 
which  he  collected  in  his  house  and  which 
daily  he  sent  to  various  hospitals  and  prisons. 

He  was  a  moderate,  even  a  frugal,  eater  for 
the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life.  His  exercise 
in  the  city  was  walking;  he  always  walked 
from  his  house  at  78th  Street  to  59th  Street 
and  sometimes  as  far  as  14th  Street  before 
taking  the  Subway  to  his  office.  At  Sea- 
bright,  his  country  place,  he  bicycled  every 
afternoon — even  after  he  had  attained  his 
seventieth  year.  At  Bar  Harbor  he  took 
long  walks,  and  did  a  bit  of  mountain-climb- 
ing up  to  the  summer  of  1919. 


SJt.  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

He  enjoyed  the  opera  and  the  theatre,  and 
usually  planned  to  have  three  evenings  of 
entertainment  in  the  week. 

In  his  house  on  Fifth  Avenue  he  had  good 
pictures  and  good  books,  but  was  in  no  sense 
a  collector  of  either,  though  he  took  pleasure 
in  his  collection  of  jade. 

His  place  at  Seabright  which  he  enlarged 
and  rebuilt  was  a  great  delight  to  him.  The 
farm,  the  stock,  the  gardens,  the  walks,  the 
splendid  alley  of  trees  which  he  planted  he 
was  fond  of  showing  to  his  guests.  His  hos- 
pitality was  delightful;  every  individual's 
tastes  and  peculiarities  were  studied  and  pro- 
vided for.  Early  every  morning  he  was  in 
his  gardens,  and  himself  brought  to  each  lady 
of  the  household  a  rose  or  some  other  flower 
of  the  season. 

He  remembered  innumerable  people's  birth- 
days and  wedding  anniversaries  by  a  gift,  a 
note  or  a  telegram;  and  when  he  sent  a  gift 
it  was  quite  certain  that  he  had  personally 
made  the  selection. 

If  a  friend  visited  New  York  he  called  or 
left  a  card,  or  if  one  were  ill  he  promptly  made 
a  visit  to  show  his  solicitude  and  friendship. 
For  all  the  nice  attentions  of  life  he  always 


A  Biographical  Sketch  65 

found  time,  in  spite  of  exacting  business  and 
public  duties. 

He  was  accessible  to  all  people  on  all  sub- 
jects, though  not  easily  persuaded  when  his 
mind  was  fixed. 

He  was  frankly  gratified  at  a  friend's  appre- 
ciation. On  January  10,  1917,  his  seventieth 
birthday,  he  wrote:  "May  I  say  to  you  that 
I  am  deeply  touched  by  your  beautiful,  if  to 
some  extent  at  least,  unmerited  appreciation 
of  my  life  upon  my  attainment  this  day  of 
the  Biblical  age.  God  has  blessed  me  so 
lavishly  that  had  I  done  less  in  the  years 
that  are  now  behind  me  than  it  was  my  privi- 
lege to  do  I  should  feel  no  respect  for  myself, 
but  that  I  have  gained  the  respect  and  good 
will  of  men  like  you  is  certainly  the  highest 
reward  I  can  wish  for."  Again  he  wrote: 
"I  care  very  much  for  the  good  opinion  and 
good  will  of  my  friends." 

He  was  a  loyal  friend  to  many  men  in  the 
business  world — Harriman  and  Cassatt  have 
been  mentioned.  General  Wilson  was  a  close 
and  dear  friend  and  a  frequent  companion. 
President  Eliot  has  already  been  spoken  of. 
A  phrase  in  a  letter  from  Abram  S.  Hewitt  (No- 
vember 21,  1901)  speaks  volumes:    "Among  the 


66  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

friends  whom  I  have  made  in  the  evening  of 
my  Hfe  no  one  has  endeared  himself  to  me  by 
acts  of  courtesy  and  friendship  more  than 
yourself,"  Levi  P.  Morton,  Jacob  Riis,  James 
J.  Hill,  and  many  still  among  the  living  he 
numbered  in  this  company,  and  he  greatly 
valued  their  good  opinion.  With  Sir  Ernest 
Cassel,  whom  he  originally  met  in  a  business 
way,  he  formed  an  especially  close  friendship 
which  many  differences  in  life  and  opinions 
never  marred  and  which  was  close  and  intimate 
in  spite  of  the  dividing  ocean. 

He  was  fond  of  travel — crossed  the  American 
continent  five  times,  made  twenty  trips  to 
Europe,  visited  Palestine,  Egypt,  and  Algiers, 
and  took  long  motor  trips  in  America  and 
Europe.  When  air  travel  was  still  in  its 
infancy  he  made  an  ascent  in  a  Zeppelin,  and 
wrote  notes  from  that  conveyance  to  a  num- 
ber of  friends.  This  was  much  for  a  man  of 
his  conservative  nature  to  undertake,  for  he 
was  fond  of  the  old  things,  and  his  horses  only 
slowly  made  way  for  the  swifter  motor. 

He  was  earnest  and  impressive  as  a  public 
speaker,  had  a  fine  sense  of  humor  and  skill 
in  illustrating  a  point  by  an  appropriate 
anecdote  or  in  enforcing  it  by  means  of  a  pun- 


A  Biographical  Sketch  67 

gent  witticism.  He  attended  the  annual 
meetings  of  the  many  organizations  with 
which  he  was  affiliated,  and  expressed  his 
personal  appreciation  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  officers  and  boards  performed  their  duties. 
His  encouragement  and  appreciation  to  all  who 
performed  a  public  service  included  those  in 
the  humblest  circumstances.  He  hated  in- 
justice, and  frowned  upon  all  conduct  that 
savored  of  self-seeking,  disloyalty,  and  dis- 
honorable practices.  His  standards  were  high, 
yet  he  was  charitable  in  his  judgments.  He 
mingled  with  men  of  every  shade  of  thought 
and  natives  of  all  parts  of  the  world.  He 
showed  great  interest  in  the  well-being  of  his 
fellow-men,  and  evinced  solicitude  and  affec- 
tion toward  his  intimates. 

He  had  a  charming  way  with  little  children, 
and  made  close  friends  among  them. 

He  was  averse  to  public  attention,  and  when 
he  reached  the  age  of  seventy  and  many 
societies  and  innumerable  admirers  indicated 
the  purpose  to  do  him  honor,  he  slipped  away 
from  New  York  with  his  family  to  Atlantic 
City.  Personal  modesty  was  a  distinguishing 
characteristic.  He  cared  little  for  distinctions, 
and    social    preferment    held    no    charms    for 


68  Jacob  Henry  Schiff 

him,  though  he  was  sought  after  in  many  cir- 
cles both  for  his  quahties  of  heart  and  mind. 

He  prized  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Commer- 
cial Science  which  was  conferred  upon  him  by 
New  York  University  in  1916  in  the  following 
terms:  "Jacob  Henri^  Schiff:  In  this  land 
of  your  adoption  you  have  won  a  place  of 
acknowledged  leadership  in  financial  and  com- 
mercial pursuits.  For  enterprise  and  breadth 
of  vision,  for  probity  and  worth,  for  the  patron- 
age of  learning;  for  fidelity  to  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  your  race  and  for  altruistic  service 
that  transcends  the  boundaries  of  race  and 
religion.  New  York  University  bestows  upon 
you  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Commercial 
Science  and  directs  that  your  name  be  added 
to  the  roll  of  her  Alumni." 

About  this  time  he  wrote  (January  12,  1916) : 
"I  have  before  this  been  offered  similar  honors 
but  no  degree,  to  which  I  could  not  claim 
some  justification  to  receive  has  attracted  me. 
The  D.  C.  S.  was  not  exposed  to  this  exception 
and  I  therefore  thought  I  might  accept  it." 

He  was  very  democratic  in  his  dealings 
with  men.  His  office  was  always  open,  and 
he  received  innumerable  visits  at  his  home 
from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  for  the 


A  Biographical  Sketch  69 

discussion  of  all  sorts  of  subjects.  Yet  he 
had  the  pride  of  noble  antecenents — of  a  great 
family  and  of  a  people  which  had  distinguished 
itself  by  giving  to  the  world  a  sublime  litera- 
ture and  many  men  of  genius. 

His  health  began  to  fail  in  the  winter  of 
1920.  At  no  time,  however,  was  he  bedrid- 
den. In  April  of  that  year  he  went  to  White 
Sulphur  Springs,  in  the  early  summer  to  White 
Plains,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  July  to  the 
White  Mountains.  Not  regaining  his  strength 
or  sleep,  he  came  back  to  Seabright  and  occu- 
pied himself  with  reading,  writing,  and  even 
going  to  New  York  to  his  office  during  the 
last  week  of  his  life.  He  resented  help,  and 
by  the  exercise  of  his  indomitable  will  was  up 
and  about — the  veritable  Master  of  the  House 
— until  the  ac^tual  day  of  his  death  when  he 
took  to  his  bed  and  passed  away  without  a 
struggle,  just  as  the  Sabbath  concluded. 

He  was  indeed  a  great  man  who  worthily 
played  his  part. 


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